There are essentially two approaches to ethics. One stresses duty and seeks to ground and define our obligations. The practical task of such an ethics is to offer guidance for living by telling us what we are obliged to do or to avoid doing. Whether these obligations stem from the commands of God or from the deliverances of pure reason, the fundamental stance of an ethical agent toward them is one of obedience. The second stresses virtue and ethical motivation. The practical task of such an ethics is to explicate and inspire the motivations that lead individuals to act well in a morally complex world. The fundamental ethical stance here is one of caring and responsiveness. What Mike W. Martin's short book makes clear is not only that Albert Schweitzer contributes to the second approach but also that he is a more important contributor to that tradition than he has been given credit for. Martin gives a thorough and clear critical exposition of Schweitzer's moral philosophy in which some of its more Romantic and mystical excesses are not allowed to obscure the valuable philosophical ideas which it contains

Schweitzer's central ethical concept is "Reverence for Life". He sees this as stemming from a fundamental will-to-life inherent in all living things that, in self-conscious beings such as ourselves, establishes a drive towards both self-realization and empathy with other living things. Unlike Nietzsche's will-to-power, it is not egoistic or individualistic. As living beings we are not only concerned for our own lives and development but also for the lives of other living beings and the environments in which we live. Along with the inclination towards self-perfection that this drive engenders, it gives rise to a nature-centered spirituality and to a form of ethical idealism. Rather than obeying moral rules which are conceived of as external impositions, the soul of the ethical life for Schweitzer is the drive towards fulfillment and authenticity. Insofar as we are a will to live, such authenticity will be felt as a need to show reverence for life in all its forms. The virtues that this gives rise to – which include compassion, gratitude, justice, hope, and the pursuit of peace – will be understood not as norms or principles to be followed, but as ideals and values in the light of which particular decisions must be made creatively and sincerely. Martin's text is especially valuable in outlining these virtues and showing how they constitute a body of dispositions unified by the fundamental attitude of reverence for life.

The nature-centered spirituality which was central to Schweitzer's thought replaced the Lutheran Christianity in which he was brought up and constitutes a kind of pantheistic faith which led him to be a precursor of some strands of contemporary environmental philosophy. Such a philosophy values nature not just as a necessary resource for human flourishing or even as a repository of beauty and revitalization, but as the very ground of our being and source of motivation. Such ideas also led Schweitzer to an interest in Eastern religions with their stress on compassion for all living things.

Of course it is an important aspect of Schweitzer's life that he was not just an ethical theorist. He was a paradigm example of the kind of moralist who inspires by example as much as by ideas. A high achiever from his earliest years, he gave up a successful life as a pastor, an academic, a concert organist, and even as a father and husband, to found and run a missionary hospital in equatorial Africa. While applauding the self-sacrifice that this involved, Martin does not avoid the ethical difficulties that arose from this essentially colonial role and from the need to give up activities and commitments that were of considerable inherent ethical value in order to fulfill it. He uses them to illustrate the difference between ethical idealism and the more usual ethical principlism which mainstream moral theory encourages us to adopt. In a world of global injustice and exploitation, we all face the ethical difficulty of knowing what we should do. Most of us are fortunate to a degree which the downtrodden of the world can barely imagine. According to Schweitzer's thought this gives us a motivation in gratitude to do what we can for others. But we must also be true to ourselves and to what we love most dearly: our loving relationships, vocations, and interests in art, knowledge, and progress. There is no formula for how to live life. But reverence for life does inspire the kind of concern for self and compassion for others which can lead one to adopt the virtuous stances which lead to such political commitments as the pursuit of human rights and lasting peace.

This is a clear and well written book which will contribute to philosophical and theological debates around virtue ethics while being both accessible and inspirational for the general reader. It greatest value will be measured by the extent to which it leads its readers back to Albert Schweitzer's original texts.

Stan van Hooft, Deakin University, is the author of Caring: An Essay in the Philosophy of Ethics, (Niwot, University Press of Colorado, 1995) and numerous journal articles on moral philosophy, bioethics, business ethics, and on the nature of health and disease. His Life, Death, and Subjectivity: Moral Sources for Bioethics, was published by Rodopi (Amsterdam and New York) in 2004. Stan published two further books in 2006: Caring about Health, (Aldershot: Ashgate), and Understanding Virtue Ethics, (Chesham: Acumen Publishers).

Welcome to Metapsychology.
We feature over 8100 in-depth reviews of a wide range of books and DVDs written by our reviewers from many backgrounds and
perspectives.
We update our front page weekly and add more than twenty new reviews each month. Our editor is Christian Perring, PhD. To contact him, use one of the forms available here.

Metapsychology Online reviewers normally receive gratis review copies of the items they review. Metapsychology Online receives a commission from Amazon.com for purchases through this site, which helps us send
review copies to reviewers. Please support us by making your Amazon.com purchases through our Amazon links. We thank
you for your support!